Fai clic su di un'immagine per andare a Google Ricerca Libri.
Sto caricando le informazioni... The Mold in Dr. Florey's Coat: The Story of the Penicillin Miracledi Eric Lax
Nessuno Sto caricando le informazioni...
Iscriviti per consentire a LibraryThing di scoprire se ti piacerà questo libro. Attualmente non vi sono conversazioni su questo libro. A readable account of Floreys teams efforts to synthesise penicillin after Fleming first described it. Interesting and set against the historical context of the Second World War, there's a sense of urgency about the story which is nicely conveyed. Overall, there's not an overwhelming amount of technical details but enough to keep you intrigued. A good, robust account of what happened and the subsequent misappropriation of credit, but this will appeal mainly to those with an interest in the history of medicine, mycology, and historical biography In 1928, Alexander Fleming, an eccentric Scottish microbiologist, saw how, by chance, penicillium mold inhibited the growth of certain dangerous and lethal bacteria. After a few years dabbling with his find, he gave up on it entirely to focus on other enzyme research. Ten years later, a group of dedicated chemists and other assorted scientists--Howard Florey, Ernst Chain, and Norman Heatley among them--happened upon Fleming's earlier research and decided to try to conduct large-scale experiments on the nature and mechanisms of the mold extract itself. The work that these fellows from Oxford conducted eventually resulted in Nobel Prizes and the virtual death-knoll for war-inflicted septicemia and lethal secondary infections. Eric Lax presents the history of the research with a rich fountain of personal correspondence and just enough cattiness to make scientists look like real people. A quick and engaging read. nessuna recensione | aggiungi una recensione
Menzioni
"Admirable, superbly researched ... perhaps the most exciting tale of science since the apple dropped on Newton's head."--Simon Winchester, The New York Times. Alexander Fleming's discovery of penicillin in his London laboratory in 1928 and its eventual development as the first antibiotic by a team at Oxford University headed by Howard Florey and Ernst Chain in 1942 led to the introduction of the most important family of drugs of the twentieth century. Yet credit for penicillin is largely misplaced. Neither Fleming nor Florey and his associates ever made real money from their achievements; instead it was the American labs that won patents on penicillin's manufacture and drew royalties from its sale. Why this happened, why it took fourteen years to develop penicillin, and how it was finally done is a fascinating story of quirky individuals, missed opportunities, medical prejudice, brilliant science, shoestring research, wartime pressures, misplaced modesty, conflicts between mentors and their proteges, and the passage of medicine from one era to the next. Non sono state trovate descrizioni di biblioteche |
Discussioni correntiNessunoCopertine popolari
Google Books — Sto caricando le informazioni... GeneriSistema Decimale Melvil (DDC)615.3295654Technology Medicine and health Pharmacology and therapeutics Organic drugs Drugs from plants and microorganismsClassificazione LCVotoMedia:
Sei tu?Diventa un autore di LibraryThing. |
The book was also a mythbuster. Alexander Fleming may have discovered the penicillin mold, but he did nothing with it after that because mold was not his area of research and he thought penicillin was not very promising as a research field. However, when it came time for the interviews and accolades that accompanied the revelation of the miracle that penicillin was, he was eager to step up and talk. This made him a media darling and led to the false assumption that he was the person who gave the world penicillin. That was not the case. It as up to Howard Florey, Ernst Chain, and Norman Heatley to figure out what penicillin was good for, and how to synthesize it. Florey and Chain shared a Nobel Prize with Fleming for penicillin but Heatley was left out. This was a fascinating story filled with brilliant innovation by the scientists and all the tension caused by the real life events of World War II. It is not over long and that makes it a very accessible book. The arguments put forth by the author to clarify the murky history of the development of penicillin are well formulated and reasoned while not be overly detailed, keeping the narrative flowing at a good pace.
Very well done book for all readers interested in science or medicine. Even for those interested in the history of WWII. ( )